Lower House - Mainz Forum Theater

Mainz "lower house" (main entrance)

This bell rings in every performance

In Mainz under house (full name under house - Mainzer Forum Theater gGmbH ) since its opening in January 1966, cabaret , song and song , comedy and all mixed forms of cabaret maintained. It is considered one of the most important centers for cabaret in Germany .

founder

Artur Bergk, sound engineer at ZDF , first full-time employee of the Unterhaus, from 1978 managing partner of the Mainz Forum Theater Unterhaus.
Renate Fritz-Schillo, actress and director , since 1978 managing partner of the Mainz Forum-Theater unterhaus.
Carl-Friedrich (Ce-Eff) Krüger, from 1965 to 1978 editor at ZDF, since 1978 managing partner of the Mainz Forum-Theater unterhaus

In May 2007, the Unterhaus was sold by the founders Bergk and Krüger to the Unterhaus Foundation with its chairman Jens Beutel (as a private person and not as Lord Mayor of Mainz), which has been running the Unterhaus since then as a non-profit GmbH . Other sponsors of the new foundation are: Wendelin Abresch, Doris Ahnen , Hans Jacobshagen, Peter Krawietz, Stefanie Mittenzwei and Walter Schumacher. The treasurer is Simone Sanftenberg . According to the statutes, the deputy chairmanship is occupied by the managing director, who was named Ewald Dietrich from 2003 to 2019. At the beginning of July 2019, Stephan Denzer , who initiated the satire programs heute-show and Die Anstalt as ZDF editor , took over the management of the Mainz lower house.

Stages

lower house in lower house

The lower house has two stages in which the performances can take place.

Unterhaus Mainzer Forum-Theater (so to speak, the "large lower house") is housed in a round vaulted building
lower house in the lower house (Mainzer Kleinkunstbühne) (the "small lower house" is above the large lower house)

Events can also take place in the Unterhaus entrée .

In addition, the lower house is also a frequent guest in the Frankfurter Hof and the Phönixhalle .

German Cabaret Prize

In 1972 the Unterhaus awarded the German Cabaret Prize for the first time in the form of the "Unterhaus bell ". The first prize winner was Hanns Dieter Hüsch . This prize has been awarded annually since then and in four categories since 1976 and is the most important German award in this field.

Performed in the lower house (selection)

Konrad Beikircher , Andreas Bieber , Wolf Biermann , Gerd Dudenhöffer , Andreas Etienne , Thomas Freitag , Gert Fröbe , Klaus Hoffmann , Hanns Dieter Hüsch , Klappmaul Theater , Reiner Kröhnert , Frank Lüdecke , Gisela May , Wolfgang Neuss , Gerd J. Pohl , Gerhard Polt , Arnulf Rating , Münchner Rationaltheater , Charles Regnier , Lars Reichow , Richard Rogler , Georg Ringsgwandl , Margit Sponheimer , Die Springmaus , Helen Vita , Hannes Wader and many more.

anniversary

For the 30th and 31st January 2016 the stars of the scene, Frank-Markus Barwasser , Jochen Malmsheimer , Urban Priol , Arnulf Rating and Georg Schramm had announced themselves to celebrate “50 years of Lower House Mainz”. The anniversary program ends with the following sentences: "The globe rotates faster and faster, we go to the cellar to laugh."